NEIL LENNON hailed his players for giving him “one of the proudest nights” of his life as Celtic beat Barcelona 2-1.

Goals from Victor Wanyama and 18-year-old Tony Watt
put the Bhoys 2-0 ahead at Celtic Park before Lionel Messi reduced the
deficit in the last minute.

Lennon said: “It’s right up there, one of the proudest nights in my career.

“It was a monumental effort from all those players and on the 125th anniversary of the club, it’s a very special occasion.

“I wanted them to do themselves justice and they’ve surpassed that. They have beaten the best club in the world.”

The result leaves Lennon’s side second in Group G, just two points behind Barcelona and three ahead of Benfica in third.

Lennon, who was part of the team that knocked Barcelona out of the Uefa Cup in 2004, added: “You try to
weather the storm – you know it’s coming and there’s not a lot you can
do.

Lionel Messi pulled one back for Barca but it was too late to ruin the party atmosphere

Then young Tony comes on, gives us new lease of life and scores a
great second goal – and he’ll go down in history now.

“It
gives us a great chance of qualifying. Benfica are still on our tails,
we’ve got to raise our game again but we’ll cross that bridge when we
come to it – I just want to enjoy the night.”

Wanyama,
whose headed goal from Charlie Mulgrew’s corner was the highlight of a
magnificent individual display in midfield, admitted it is “too early”
to look ahead to the knockout stages, but the Kenyan said: “If we keep
on doing the same, we’re going to get great results and we’re going to
be there.

“This is unbelievable. I can’t even
describe it, it’s just unreal to beat one of the best teams in the
world. We were calm with the ball and that’s what kept us in the game,
we believed in ourselves.

“The first goal was
important and gave us the energy to go on. We have been working hard at
set-pieces, we knew we were going to get one.”

Lennon
added: “We knew we could affect them at corners, we looked at their
back-post area with Jordi Alba in the zonal system and Charlie Mulgrew
is one of the best dead-ball players around.”

Striker
Watt doubled Celtic’s advantage in the 83rd minute after coming on as
substitute for his first Champions League appearance.

He
said: “It’s probably the best moment of life. I’ll look back on it when
I’m older and think, ‘We’ve beaten Barcelona in the Champions League’–
it just doesn’t get any better.”

Fraser Forster
was outstanding in the Celtic goal, producing a string of fine saves,
notably from Messi. He said: “It’s a tremendous feeling.”